Can be UP CM-pick if party wishes, says Katheria

LUCKNOW: In what could heat up the political debate within the BJP, Union minister of state for human resource development Ram Shanker Katheria has thrown his hat in the ring ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections by not ruling out the possibility of taking a shot at vying for being the CM candidate.
When asked if he would like to be the party’s CM candidate in 2017, Katheria said he was a loyal party worker and would abide by whatever party asks him to do.
Katheria's statement comes days after UP in charge and BJP national vice-president Om Mathur had said that the UP BJP might go to the polls in UP in 2017 without projecting anyone as its CM candidate.
Katheria, a Dalit face of the BJP in the state, told mediapersons here on Monday that the “BJP was the only party where member from any community can be made the chief minister or chief of the party in the state unlike in other parties.”
He hit out at Mayawati, saying, “Mayawati has brought an end to Kanshiram’s mission and those related to BSP and BAMCEF (All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees' Federation) founder Kanshiram are feeling suffocated in Mayawati-led BSP.
Katheria said that suggestions would be sought by HRD ministry through around two dozen committees which would come up soon, on ways to improve the education system in the country. He said that though no deadline has been fixed, the effort is to give children good enough environment through education that they are not forced to migrate to other countries.
On the controversy surrounding allegations of him using a fake degree, Katheria said that the court has given him a clean chit as his opponent in the election had got an FIR lodged on the basis of a photocopy of a fake degree.